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A few things come to mind when I think of Falls Festival; being stuck in a car for eight hours, welcoming in the New Year with your best mates, and the wild memories that come in between, with this year as no exception. To celebrate the festival’s 25^th Anniversary, and to forget the unfortunate headlines that followed last year’s run, something pretty special had to be pulled out of the bag.

Held between the New Year period and first week of January each year, Secret Sound’s Falls Festival brings together live performance, comedy, markets, crafts, yoga, food, dance workshops, and this year marriage ceremonies, to create a village-like community. To me, the underlying theme of this year’s festival was unity, with each act emphasising crowd safety and positivity, shaking off the tumultuous year that was 2017. With the festival’s line up getting better and better annually, it seems only fair that this year to celebrate the silver jubilee, this anticipated line up should include some of Australia’s finest performers, while celebrating the international acts who have toured these shores over the past 25 years. With the likes of Daryl Braithwaite, Liam Gallagher, Peking Duk, The Kooks, Foster the People, Thundamentals, Allday, and some small time producer called Flume, filling only a fraction of this year’s lineup, Lorne’s tickets sold out in record time. Need I say more?

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Opening the festival in the Grand Theatre, Haiku Hands used their high energy and matching navy boiler suits to hype their small yet growing crowd. Their distinctive loud vocals seemed to wake the audience just in time for the crowd pleaser, Not About You. As the afternoon drew into the evening, Confidence Man blew up the tent with their hit Boyfriend (Repeat), as a subtle warm up for Daryl Braithwaite’s highly awaited set. It’s safe to say one word came to everyone’s minds when seeing Braithwaite’s name on the lineup; Horses. As the Grand Theatre swiftly filled to capacity Braithwaite and his band emerged on stage to greet the cheering crowd and various horse themed crowd markers. After filling his set with hits such as Howzat, One Summer, and more from his solo catalogue, the former Sherbet frontman, finished his Falls debut with an extended version of Horses for the ecstatic crowd. Through this song and his impeccable vocal performance, he blurred the barriers between age and musicianship, allowing his millennial strong crowd to take charge of the iconic chorus that has reemerged as definitive as ever. Despite the song ending, the heaving crowd continued to push for more, and before leaving the stage, we were treated to Braithwaite donning a horse head mask. A move of which caused the Grand Theatre to roar. After last year’s stampede, the exits of the Grand Theatre were completely open but were put to the limit between set breaks and during The Jungle Giants set in particular. The Jungle Giants high energy kicked the night into full swing, and despite the band being left in darkness due lighting technicalities, they finished their set with crowd mover, Feel the Way I Do. Closing the night, Thundamentals energised the crowd with favourites, Smiles Don’t Lie, Think About It,  Noodle Soup and Quit Your Job. Their set seemed to keep the crowd’s energy high, only stopping to interact and emphasise positive vibes within the crowd. Before ending the night with Something I Said they welcomed friend, Alphamama to further ignite the crowd with Sally.

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Friday’s set list moved to the open Valley Stage situated at the bottom centre of the natural amphitheatre. With the stormy weather setting in, we found ourselves only braving the elements for Ocean Alley and those who followed. Their smooth reggae style rock, seemed to settle the weather and decent sized crowd who started to fill the area ready for the night. As the sun was setting over the forest, DZ Deathrays left the audience with a taste of the night left to come with the crammed crowd thrashing against each other with security fighting to keep them safe. After, Dune Rats began with inflated props set either side of the stage, with the band being back-dropped by giant inflatables of their name. The band’s stoner party punk sound, seeped through the venue, with the crowd echoing ‘At a party, who’s Scott Green?’ Parallel to this, Foster the People treated the bursting crowd to a smooth performance with frontman, Mark Foster gliding around the stage. Before closing their set with crowd jumping Pumped Up Kicks, Foster left the audience with a prayer of unity, highlighting the trouble the world had faced during 2017 and reiterating the festival’s communal feel.

For me, one of the most anticipated sets of the festival had to be Flume. As soon as Foster the People left the stage, masses of crew began constructing Flume’s physical and lighting set, hinting that his show was going to be big. But to most of the crowd afterwards, it seemed it wasn’t. I hadn’t seen Flume live before so I desperately wanted to experience it up close and well within the crowd, and that we did. He began his set with his remix of Disclosure’s You and Me, and ran on from there. As Australia’s most recognisable producer, I have to admit I expected more from him. I thought as it was his first time back at Falls since his 2012 debut, he would have guest vocals to reignite Say It, Smoke and Retribution, and Never Be Like You, but instead he just played them as he regularly would. Now don’t get me wrong, he’s at his peak musically, but performance wise he’s slightly lacking. Flume’s set was enjoyable because of the crowd’s love of his music, but we were celebrating just that; his music rather than his performance, with little crowd interaction except for apologising for restarting Never Be Like You after mistakenly slipping into double time. For this though, he showed that despite his prestige he’s not untouchable, and I commend him for that. Melbourne based Benson followed suit and kept up the party vibe with his house party inspired set, hyping up the crowd all the way through until 2am, when finishing with a remix of Cher’s Believe.

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Despite being dramatically woken up by a marquee collapsing on our tent thanks to the rapid storms that came over night, Saturday for me began with DRAM’s afternoon set. This gracious performer was clearly humbled by the crowd who surrounded the Valley Stage. Prior to this I’d only ever heard Broccoli, his collaboration with Lil Yachty, but I was super impressed and intrigued by DRAM’s whole set. He consistently gave his all to the audience, showing his appreciation through his beaming smile and confidence. The crowd seemed to mirror his charm and efforts, with everyone transfixed on his every move. The opening bars of Broccoli truly erupted the crowd, with DRAM making his way into the crowd’s centre, dancing and rapping with every person he saw, before being fully submerged. Watching this was incredible and it was clear this American rapper was stunned by the audience at his Australian debut. So much so, he performed Broccoli for a second time, refusing to leave the ignited presence of the crowd. For this final time he paraded around the barrier and through the side and back of the crowd, to greet as many people as he could. While doing this, he called for the crowd’s rendition of Broccoli, and concentrated on having a blast with the fans around him. DRAM certainly blew it out of the park, or amphitheatre in this case, with a Falls debut that other artists could learn from.

Adelaide born rapper Allday, followed in the early evening to an even bigger crowd at the Valley Stage. Although his presence wasn’t as out there as DRAM’s, Allday worked his audience through a variety of his catalogue, from most recent album Speeding, to crowd pleasers such as Right Now and You Always Know the DJ. Despite some technical difficulties with his ear pieces, Allday kept up his strong performance, frequently taking items from the crowd to wear.

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As the evening drew later and the weather turned back to rain, Liam Gallagher graced the stage with a rock n roll banner behind him, with the intriguing arrogance of a 90s’ icon. He worked his way through songs from his debut solo album, As You Were, before tightening the hood on his rain jacket, and finishing his set with a spine tingling acoustic version of Wonderwall, only signalling he was done when he threw down the maracas he was using and walked away in true Gallagher fashion. As you were, LG, as you were.

British band The Kooks followed a couple of hours later as a part of their celebratory 10 year anniversary tour. The crowd belted out the best of the last 10 years alongside singer Luke Pritchard, erupting to Be Who You Are as Luke strutted across the stage meeting his audience. The set slowed down for the calm Seaside before bursting again for their final number, Naive. Personally, Peking Duk absolutely nailed their festival set. This duo, hailing from Canberra, welcomed Falls Festival (with the longest set time on the line up), with eye popping visuals, remixes, guest vocalists, and a premiere of their new song, Wasted. These party boys moved from decks, to drums, to guitar, to front of stage with movements as fast paced as their set list. Guest vocalists, Michaela Baranov and Benjamin Joseph from SAFIA, accompanied Reuben and Adam to fully pump up the crowd, bringing a true party vibe to their hits, Say My Name, and High.

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Compared to this night, New Year’s Eve seemed pretty tame. The morning kicked off with the sun shining down on Lorne, with a relaxed vibe amongst the camp, allowing us to hear the morning performances echoing from the Valley Stage throughout the campsite. Angus and Julia Stone kept the cool composure going through their evening set, for it to be positively disturbed by The Smith Street Band, who’s set seemed to fly by. Glass Animals‘ figures seemed to be silhouetted onstage adding to their moody synth sound, with the crowd bouncing to their cover of Gnarles Barkley’s, Crazy, and their own Gooey.

The New Year countdown belonged to hip hop supergroup, Run the Jewels. They exploded onto the stage and continued to build the crowd for the countdown while explaining their rules; “do not touch women you don’t know.” The group also showed their softer side through spoken word poetry, slightly calming the vibe. The mood picked up again but it seemed like the only reference to the countdown was the 60 second countdown shown on the screens either side of the stage. For me, Run the Jewels were an odd choice for the countdown, but their show was enjoyable with a uniquely energetic live show. After midnight struck, kisses and cheers flew amongst the crowd, proving that Secret Sound’s Falls Festival reigns as the top place the ring in the New Year.

Hello 2018. Fall’s Festival, you’ve done it again.

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Check out all Liam Davidson’s galleries of the Lorne Event below.

DAY 1          DAY 2          DAY 3          DAY 4

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AMNPLIFY – DB